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Fresh faced New Zealand footwear designer Kathryn Wilson has some good news to share. The first time mum is the new face of Garnier BB Cream in New Zealand and she’s created a limited edition patent leather BB Ballerina Flat to celebrate, in nude of course!

The nude ballerina flats echo the multi-tasking characteristics of the Garnier BB Cream which is a moisturiser, sunblock and foundation in one.

Since becoming mum to baby Lola in January, Wilson says she appreciates the time saving attributes of a BB cream even more. “There’s less time for myself to do any preening or prepping in the mornings so anything that saves my life â in the car or handbag at the office â is really neat. It does everything!” she says.

But that’s not all. In May the designer will be releasing what she is calling “The Famous Five” collection of Kathryn Wilson classics, which will include the ballet flats (in other colours).

“It’s five must-haves â the wedge, a brogue, a ballet, a pump and a boot. The idea from that is it’s something we will do every season as a ‘go to’ covering off the basics of your wardrobe in really lovely neutrals,” Wilson says.

The BB Ballerina is limited edition. Only 42 pairs have been produced and they’re not for sale, you can only win them.

Luxury watch nirvana is found at the annual Baselworld event. Held inÂ Swiss city of Basel- from March 19-March 26 – everybody who’s an anybody is there. And this year Australia has its first entrant – Bausele (which stands for Beyond AUStralian ELEments), an Australian company creating luxury Swiss-made watches.

The company, found by Christophe Hoppe,a Swiss-raised Frenchman who now lives in Sydney. Australia was the inspiration forÂ Hoppe’s designs, and each watch actually hasÂ a ‘little piece’ of Australia inside them, such asÂ sand or red dustâ in the crown of each of its watches. Â The brand have also collaborated with Flinders University in South Australia on a new material for their watches, Bauselite. Ambassadors for brand includeÂ the likes of basketballÂ playerÂ Andrew Bogut, Australia’s highest paid sportsman, and Lisa Blair, a professional sailor and the first female to sail solo around Antarctica.

At Baselworld Hoppe will show eight collections, including their first dedicated women’s collection.

We grabbed Hoppe for five minutes before his Baselworld debut to chat about about selling Australia to Australians, scientific breakthroughs in the watch industry and what he hopes to achieve at Baselworld.

Can you explain the âlittle piece of Australiaâ concept and how this will be expanded in the future? Why was it important to incorporate Australia into the designs?

Australia is the concept of Bausele. But being an âAustralianâ brand wasnât enough so I thought of incorporating a piece of Australia in the watch. When you think of Australia overseas, you think outback and nice beaches amongst other images. This is how I was the first watch brand ever to include in the crown an element of a country. That was a first step of a very distinctive and unique concept for Bausele Â but what I am really proud of is the production unit that we have in partnership with Flinders University where we manufacture our own composite, the Bauselite (patent pending) and bringing back manufacturing in Australia!Â

How did the partnership with Flinders University come about, and whatâs it like working with scientists?

Flinders University has a commercialisation arm called Flinders Partners. Anthony Francis who runs it got in contact with me and introduced me to different program within the University. We end up finding common interest with David Lewis and Jonathan Campbell from the Nano Connect program and started to work on ideas that we could apply to a watch. We end up pursuing the route of manufacturing the main component of the watch case and above all they found a process and material that is so unique that we can call it our own (the Bauselite). Nano Connect are not the idea that you have from âscientistsâ, they understand the requirements of the ârealâ world when we talk about cost, deadline and leadtime. We are very lucky that they found us and that they were so passionate to find a solution to manufacture a component in Australia.

What are the new technologies we will be seeing in the watch market in the near future?

Of course, we all hear about the smart watches. AtÂ the moment, the main goal is to develop manufacturing in Australia, create jobs and have a profitable manufacturing business.

Who are you targeting with your watches? Who is buying them right now?

Our customers are mainly Australians in Australia and Australians leaving overseas. The image of Australia is so good around the world that we want to take advantage of that positive image to start to sell something luxurious and Australian to the world. Two words that havenât been associated together a lot in the past, we want to change that considering all the great raw material that we are producing.

What are your hopes/expectation for Baselworld? What happens after that?Â

A lot of orders! And attention from the media worldwide:) BaselWorld is the place where all the buyers and journalists interested in watches and jewellery from around the world meet once every year.Â